When they picture Eddie Moreno, Alamo Heights basketball players all see the same teammate.

The 5-foot-7 senior guard who worked his way from statistician to a leader on one of the Mules' best teams ever. The guy who wasn't the fastest or the most talented but always the winner in the last sprints in practice.

The next time they see Eddie, that's all going to change.

Moreno, 17, is paralyzed from the neck down after he was shot in a road-rage incident on Saturday. The bullet severed his spinal cord, and he'll need a ventilator to breathe.

He was just playing basketball in the Alamo Heights gym on Thursday. He planned on becoming a basketball coach. Before games, he'd give a speech to the team and outline what was at stake.

Now, Jennifer Moreno will have to tell her son that he'll likely never walk again.

“We haven't used the word ‘paralyzed' to him,” Jennifer said. “We're trying to give him a little bit at a time. It's so hard, when you have a son as active as he is. It kills you that somebody took away all these dreams he had.”

Players used to think this season would be defined by their 31-5 record, the fifth 30-win season in school history. Instead, it's defined by how they were all there in a University Hospital waiting room Saturday morning.

Coach Charlie Boggess didn't know whether his team should see Moreno on Saturday, when it was unclear whether he would survive the gunshot.

Many of the players said they can't wait to be by his side.

They've been researching spinal injuries and how Eddie's paralysis is similar to the late actor Christopher Reeve. They're helping with various fundraisers being planned and attending prayer services for their teammate.

And they've changed the way they see the world.

Police reports say Moreno was shot at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday on an access road at Loop 410 after he and his cousins had left a nearby McDonald's. Moreno never said anything to the man who shot him, and his window was rolled up at the time.

No arrests have been made.

Less than an hour after Moreno was shot, another shooting occurred on Loop 410 in which a man died at the scene.

Most of the players said they have been out at 2:30 a.m. in the past. It simply could have been a late night of playing video games or stopping for food after a midnight movie.

“Before Friday, we felt like we were invincible,” Heights junior Shelby Lane said. “You always hear about stuff like this, but when it happens to someone you know, your world stops. I hope this makes everybody stop and think the next time they're out late or in a situation like that.”

There's a tough road back for Moreno, who underwent more surgery on Wednesday, a tracheotomy to aid his breathing.

His mother has been wearing Eddie's favorite sweatshirt much of the past week, one with a giant Alamo Heights basketball logo on the front.

She said she knows it will help Eddie's recovery that his team is waiting to go through each step with him.

“The way Eddie thinks, he's probably saying to himself that this isn't anything,” senior guard Daniel Mitchell said. “He's probably thinking he'll be back on the court in a few weeks.